Good for us, good for our planet
Transparent production
We have published our first sustainability review! Who made your Mainios? Who made the clothes – and who made the fabrics? Who dyed them and who printed them? What are they made of and why? Where do the cotton and wool fibres come from? We believe in openness and transparency. We put together a lot of detailed information about our partner factories, our whole supply chain, the materials we work with and about the philosophy guiding all our actions. Read our 2020 sustainability review here.
Softness for us and the Earth
Our base is soft: organically farmed cotton jersey is the building block of our collections. Soft against soft skin, it is easy to both wear and take care of. In 2020, nearly 100 % of the cotton we used was GOTS certified organic cotton, and a total of 89,2 % of our products were made of GOTS certified organic cotton and GOTS certified organic merino wool. We have reduced the use of elastane, as it shortens the lifespan of a garment and makes it more difficult to recycle. We are working to increase the use of recycled materials and to find new, even more sustainable materials. Read in detail in our sustainability review.
Seeing double
We use double sizes. Roll up trouser legs and sleeves that are too long and adjust the garments’ waists so that your kid can play in our clothes for far longer. Longevity is sewn into the very design of our clothes: we favour designs that look good and can be worn both oversize and fitted. Long Mainio dresses turn into tunics that then turn into shirts as your kid grows into bigger adventures. Mainio represents slow fashion: we design collections that can be loved for years and by different kids. We encourage you to fearlessly mix and match clothes from different seasons.
Standards and guidelines
Are you curious about the standards and guidelines that we adhere to? Read more about the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and the SA8000 certification.
The GlobalOrganic Textile Standard (GOTS) is the worldwide leading textile processing standard for organic fibres, including ecological and social criteria. GOTS standard includes every step of manufacturing from the cotton seeds and harvesting through environmentally and socially responsible manufacturing up to labeling, trading, and distribution. GOTS limits the use of toxic bleaches, dyes and other chemical inputs during the production process. Inputs like dyes and oils must be biodegradable and free of harsh chemicals.
Fair to the core
We want to treat our people and our planet with care and believe that our products are only as fair as the conditions that we give their makers.
Fair and square
Our partner factory in India is SA8000 certified. Established by Social Accountability International (SAI), SA8000 is a social standard that advances and protects the human rights of workers and guarantees living wages. It focuses on nine core elements: child labour, forced labour, health and safety, freedom of association and right to collective bargaining, discrimination, discipline practices, working hours, compensation and management systems.
Living wages
The SA8000 standard covers the concept of living wage - a remuneration that is enough to cover a decent standard of living for both the worker and their family. Food, clean drinking water, housing, education, healthcare, transport, clothing and other essential needs should all be obtainable with a fair living wage. All of the workers in our collaborators’ factories earn a wage that meets the real cost of living, often more than the government minimum. We want to make sure that the kids of our collaborators’ workers are also allowed to be kids.
Our Production 2023
In 2023, approximately 61 % of our collection was produced in India, 18 % in Ukraine, 15 % in Türkiye and 6 % was produced in Finland.
We require all our suppliers to comply with the minimum ethical and environmental requirements set out in our Mainio Code of Conduct. Every time we start a new partnership, it is our goal to grow and nurture it into an equal, long-time partnership with mutual trust and respect.
Have you thought about how long the supply chain in the fashion industry can be? Many factories specialize in certain production phases, e.g. pattern-making, cutting and sewing, or printing or dyeing. Often only the biggest factories produce everything in-house.
You can read about our supply chain in detail in our sustainability review.
Thai Exports
Without Thai Exports, there wouldn’t be Mainio. With their help, we turned Mainio from sketches and ideas into real, tangible clothes. Our founders have known and worked with Thai Exports for almost two decades and we are proud to have grown a friendship with this family-owned factory located in Tirupur, a textile hub known as the knitwear capital of India. We are proud of how Mainio has grown since our first collection made in collaboration with Thai Exports. Since then, we've expanded our world – today, we work with talented textile professionals in Finland, Ukraine and Türkiye.
We believe that building ethical and sustainable production in high-risk countries is our responsibility.
We must change it for the better because we can.
Sustainable manufacture means respect for the workers and the environment, for the benefit and wellbeing of whole communities. In countries where textiles are a large industry and where problems are abundant, it is especially important to develop sustainable production and create and maintain permanent, safe jobs for the employees.
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India has a 5000-year-old heritage and culture and our language is equally as old, structured with grammar written down 5000 years ago. Our culture is based on family. Family ties have the highest priority in life – we value families over individualism. We all bonded by blood relationship of family. Our lives are guided and enhanced by our relatives and family members. When we are together and united, we are happy.
The highest, most revered and most-loved person in the world for every Indian is their mother. Here, mothers are like gods. They bear all pains and live for their children. India itself is described as Bharath Matha, which means ‘mother’. Other nations call their countries Fathers, but ours is our Mother. For us, mother is not a person, but a feeling that we all share. That’s why our factory is named Thai Exports – in our language, ’Thai’ means mother, the loveliest creature in the world.
NALLASIVAM SUBBARAYAN
THE DIRECTOR OF THAI EXPORTS
Our partners
HRT Textiles A/S
Take care
Favourite outfits are forever. Here’s what you can do to make your clothes last. We’d love to see your lived-in clothes! Share them on Instagram with the hashtag #livemainio.
WASH
Life is beautifully messy. Play, roam and explore the world fearlessly – and then return home to wash your Mainios.
- Wash your Mainios only when really needed.
- Choose an environmentally-friendly detergent and avoid softeners.
- Wash in low temperatures – it is more ecological and the clothes’ prints will shine brighter and longer.
REPAIR
Our clothes are meant to be lived and played in. When life happens, fix and customise your ripped and stained clothes.
- Cover stains by adding patches or embroidery.
- Fix tears in knees and other tricky spots with patches.
- When your trousers and shirts have seen so many adventures that they can no longer be salvaged, cut them into shorts and t-shirts. Live wild and keep the edges raw.